Been there......Stay away from the Blue Marlin (San José) , unless you're single and brave. Many of my colleagues make a bee line for the place as soon as they hit the ground, I would need a note from my wife for that . Generally speaking the country is pretty Gringo friendly, but the usual South of Miami precautions DO apply.

I went to Costa Rica for Christmas and I had a great time. As far as beer goes I have some good news and some bad news. Bad news first: The Beer choices are pretty bad.Good news: the Beer is cheap!

I had Imperial, Pilsen, Tona (with a tilda over the n) and Bavaria Negra when I was down there. Imperial, Tona and Pilsen tasted like Budweiser or MGD or something along those lines. The Bavaria by comparison was delicious, but still not great. Let me tell you though it didn't keep me from drinking plenty!

The beers at the hotel were very cheap, maybe a dollar or two per, and when we went in to town I bought a 14 pack of Tona for $4.00 at a grocery store.

Guanacaste area. Taking my wife for her 40th so no Blue Marlin trips either. Plan to spend 2 days drinking beer and sitting by the pool, then I'm going to go find some fish. Mrs has a zipline/jungle hike/horseback riding/volcano thing planned for one day in which I believe she is trying to kill me...

CR is a beautiful country. Lots of hills, ravines, switchbacks, elevation changes, etc. And the roads aren't the best or well-identified. If you're renting a car--you must have one with GPS. You'd be lost without it.

Don't knock the wife's plans. We took the family 2 years ago to Mt Arenal and did the whole cloud forest canopy zipline, hiking, ATV riding through palm oil plantations, tropical plants/orchids/butterfly gardens, touring vanilla plantations, white-water rafting (which, unlike Colorado's freezing waters, is body-temp warm, and has the occasional crocodile keeping you feeling very alive when you're trying to get back in the raft), watching active lava flows at night, visiting coffee plantations, etc.

Very friendly place. Stay away from the tourist places to eat/drink. They'll charge outrageous prices, but the rest of the country is cheap. You'll love the little "Sodas" along the roadside--little mom and pop cantinas serving the chicken, black beans and rice national dish.

That is fantastic! The next time I go back I'll find one of them. Costa Rica has a lot of Americans, Canadians and Germans moving and vacationing there so I would not be surprised to see a lot of brewpubs and craft breweries open up. Incidentally, I did happen to notice that real estate was not very expensive either... hmmmm.....

Very friendly place. Stay away from the tourist places to eat/drink. They'll charge outrageous prices, but the rest of the country is cheap. You'll love the little "Sodas" along the roadside--little mom and pop cantinas serving the chicken, black beans and rice national dish.

This is really good advice. The Costa Rican people are very friendly, warm folks. And if you pay more, you don't necessarily get better quality for the food. The black beans and rice dish (Gallo Pinto) is served at every meal, and it's very good, especially for breakfast with eggs. You'll see a bottle of Lizano Salsa on every table, it's a mild to medium sauce that has a hint of cumin or curry or something. Anyway, it's very good and they put it on everything.

Don't look like an easy target. Keep your money/wallet in a hard to reach place, and divvy the money up between a few pockets. Do not wear jewelry, watches etc. Do not flash purses, cameras or other electronic equipment. Stay in areas where there's a "plan B". Do not take local taxi's, let hotel bellmen arrange for those. Do not trust the cops. They are on a commission basis, if you get my drift. After dark be even more careful.

It is not a dangerous country per se, but there are people that target you, and you are easily singled out. Make their job hard. Be vigilant AT ALL TIMES.

Those of my friends that moved around freely and had a great time looked like total bums doing it.

Thanks Oscarvan. Really appreciate it. First time my wife and I have travelled and one of the reasons I chose Costa Rica was the lower crime rate compared to other Central/South American countries. We'll do our best to look our worst.

I think for the most part we'll be around the resort but I absolutely must fish (it's a bit of an obsession) so I'll probably be wondering the beach at least a bit so I'll keep an eye open, and I won' t have too many Costa Rican beers until I'm safely back in my room...